The Humming Word James Finnegan

The Humming Word

after Wisława Szymborska and Mark Strand

there is something burning below the sternum just to the right of the heart a thirst I guess a hunger too but mostly thirst a yearning for a doorway out of darkness

I varnish the iroko gate and doors spray the white dash of the house can’t hear the hum of anything passing by someone empties the septic tank jet-sprays the percolation pipes the gurgling sound is a gurgling sound and no more then silence in the garden I don’t interrupt

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I have no words to carve with my tongue no hum nothing to shape

nor am I a body enwrapping a song only the hound of the ordinary inchoate searching for an understate dead oak leaves on the ground in July

James Finnegan

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